Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (left) and his wife, Liu Xia, before he was named a Nobel Peace laureate in 2010. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The wife of the jailed Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo wept as she described her "absurd and unbelievable" two years under house arrest in an interview hastily given in the absence of her guards.

Liu Xia's husband is serving 11 years for incitement to subvert state power, having co-authored and gathered signatures for Charter 08, a document promoting democratic reforms. But the Chinese authorities have never even acknowledged detaining Liu Xia, nor accused her of any wrongdoing, despite her long ordeal.

The 53-year-old poet and artist compared her situation to a Kafka story in the brief conversation with journalists from Associated Press, her first interview in 26 months. They believe they managed to access her fifth floor apartment in Beijing because the guards who watch it had stepped out for lunch.

AP said she trembled uncontrollably and wept as she described her confinement, which began shortly after her husband was named as the winner of the Nobel peace prize in October 2010.

Liu said she had been held in their apartment in Beijing with no internet or phone line, and allowed out only to buy groceries and visit her parents once a week. A source close to the family has previously said that two female police officers live in the flat with her.

"We live in such an absurd place," Liu told AP. "It is so absurd. I felt I was a person emotionally prepared to respond to the consequences of Liu Xiaobo winning the prize. But after he won the prize, I really never imagined that after he won, I would not be able to leave my home. This is too absurd. I think Kafka could not have written anything more absurd and unbelievable than this."

She is taken to see her 57-year-old husband – who is held at a prison 280 miles north-east of Beijing – once a month, she said, although it is not clear when such visits began, nor whether they will continue following her interview.

She visited him two days after his Nobel win and said he had dedicated it to those who died in the bloody crackdown on the democracy protests that began in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But she was not able to see him for more than a year after that.

Although she is not allowed to discuss her situation with her husband in any detail, Liu said he "understands more or less" how she is living, adding: "I told him: 'I am going through what you are going through almost.'"

Earlier this week, a letter by 134 Nobel laureates – including the Dalai Lama and Toni Morrison – called on China's new leader, Xi Jinping, to release the couple. Chinese scholars, lawyers and activists have also issued a similar letter.

Liao Tienchi, the president of the independent Chinese PEN centre, and a friend of the couple, said: "Liu Xia's situation is the most outrageous one. It is absurd and ridiculous that they sentenced Liu Xiaobo to such a high imprisonment, but she has done nothing: she is only his wife."

She added: "It is like solitary confinement for her … We are all very worried about her situation. Psychologically, she has really suffered a lot."

Liao said friends were concerned that Liu Xia might suffer a mental breakdown, adding: "It is a very difficult case for the Chinese authorities. Now the new leadership have to face the situation … I have a little bit of hope that the new leadership will make some gesture to change this situation."

Liao said she suspected the government feared that Liu Xia might come to symbolise a free spirit in her husband's place.